Forum Marketing is a great way of marketing your online business or other types of websites.  Forum users are very often experts in different niches or bloggers, and by using forums in your overall online marketing strategy your message may reach unlimited prospects.  Below you’ll find some tips and guidelines on how to start your forum marketing efforts, and by implemeting them you’ll get a great start in the forum world:

• Pick 5-10 forums within your niche
  • Check the forum guidelines to find out if there are restrictions and/or benefits of any kind.  That can be things like not allowing links in your signature, can you promote your business, are there any privileges for veteran users, are there any restrictions for new users.
  • There should be at least 1000 users in the forums you chose, and the reason is obviously that you like to put your efforts in where you get the most out if it and the best results.  The more users the more prospects and potential customers.
  • Make sure there are at least 20 new posts a day
  • When you have found 5-10 forums you like to use, create an account as soon as possible. The reason is that older users are given more deference that newer users.  There are even forums where new users cannot posts the first couple of days.
  • PS! Chose a username that means something to all people which is easy to pronounce and remember.

• Create your profile
  • When creating your profile you should put some efforts into that, because this is like your advertisment to the community and the users.
  • Put in a picture of yourself, preferably a head picture or a picture with you and your kids or maybe pets.  People like that.
  • Let people know a little bit about you, your interests, profession, pets, family, favourite sports teams etc.  Make sure to avoid anything about politics and religion as this might offend your audience.
  • YOUR SIGNATURE is where you actually put in your link to your website.  Make sure not to put in flashy pictures or anything like that, just a short comment and the link to your website.  If you have any free offers, like a lead “magnet” make sure to mention that in your signature as well.
• Introduce yourself to the community
  • Write a short introduction post about yourself to the community.  Usually there are threads like “New Members”, “Say hello to the community” or something like that where you can post your introduction. By all means, do not advertise or spam in your introduction post as people hate it and you can be banned by the moderators as well.
• Posting advices
  • Contribute with valuable comments and posts to the community.  This is the key to success in forum marketing.
  • Do not spam and do not overrun the community with sales pitches in the beginning.
  • Keep your answers objective and the community will soon look at you as a trusted expert.  After a while they will start asking you for recommendations, and that is when you can safely mention your business or products.
  • Backup your advices and recommendations with trusted sources.  This will contribute to build your expert image.

To your online success
Tom and André